The Birthday That Never Was
by starwefter
Summary: What would you do if Seto Kaiba sent you a birthday present? A Torchwood/Yu-gi-oh! crossfic written in response to KaibaGirl007's "The Duel that Never Was"....


Poor Ianto... I like him. Why did I ever do this to him?

This is a _Torchwood/Yu-gi-oh!_ crossfic written in response to KaibaGirl007's _The Duel that Never Was: Seto Kaiba vs. Ianto Jones _(here on fan fiction net at **.net/s/4781637**) which in turn is a oneshot spinoff of her longer _Dr. Who/Torchwood/Yu-gi-oh! _crossfic _Doctoring the Blue Eyes_ (here on fan fiction net at **.net/s/4512279**). She gave me a plot bunny... (And I've made one small edit at her suggestion -- she's the Torchwood/Dr. Who expert!)

KaibaGirl007's story takes place about a dozen years after the end of the original _Yu-gi-oh! _story – Seto is still running KaibaCorp and the KaibaLands and has started the Duel Academies – until he seriously messes up his present. _Torchwood _is between the second and third season, and, in fact, as the third season is only currently in production and not yet released as of the time of her and my writing, we no doubt will be somewhat off canon for it almost instantly. Sorry – but, not our fault, we can't predict the future.... Moreover I've actually only seen season one, and about half of season two of _Torchwood_. (All right, already, I'm fixing that!) Also, keep in mind that as a citizen of Wales, she gets the British usages right – me, I'm from across the pond; I speak American, not English, so I make no promises...

And my story went off canon for her fic almost as soon as I had it written, because some of her plot twists I truly didn't see coming. So, keep in mind, this takes place between Chapter 34 and Chapter 35 of her story. At the start Seto has been back in his corrected time line for about a week – except there are still some significant differences between it and the one he left. Also, although Jack argued that the Torchwood personnel would remember him, Seto doesn't yet know if that's true.

In the other future Seto was a nobody – but now he's back to being – well, Seto Kaiba, with all that implies.

So seriously, I really do like Ianto – he reminds me of Radar O'Reilly on the old _M*A*S*H _television show – he's shy and uncertain, and in the same way that Radar could always scrounge whatever was needed (even if he had to arrange five other trades to get it), Ianto really does know everything, even if it's because it's on the computer screen right in front of him – because he's the only one who's bothering to read the screen. And if he doesn't know, he knows where to look for the answer, and won't stop until he finds it. Like Radar, he holds the place together – so Ianto really deserves better than this from me.

But then Seto thinks he deserves a bit better from Jack... And he likes Ianto, too.

So let's get the official stuff done – the below shows and characters are used for fanfiction purposes only, I, Starwefter (a.k.a. DarkStar), disclaim all ownership:

_Yu-gi-oh! _and all associated characters and concepts including Seto Kaiba, Mokuba Kaiba, Yugi Mutou, duel disks and the game Duel Monsters are © Kazuki Takahashi; the actual Yu-gi-oh! trading card game which is the real world counterpart of Duel Monsters is also © Kazuki Takahashi and is licensed to Konami.

_Torchwood_ and all associated characters and concepts including Ianto Jones, Capt. Jack Harkness, Gwen Cooper, and Rhiannon and Johnny Evans are © BBC Worldwide Ltd. _Torchwood_ is produced by BBC/Wales.

_Dr. Who_ and all associated characters and concepts including the T.A.R.D.I.S. and, obviously, Dr. Who himself, (who really doesn't appear in this, but did get mentioned) are also © BBC Worldwide Ltd. _Dr. Who_ was originally produced by the BBC, and now is produced by BBC/Wales.

**The Birthday that Never Was**

Jack had assured him that the members of Torchwood Three would be aware of the memories he and they shared from the time he'd spent as a fellow team member there, even though that shared past and communal experience didn't exist in this time line – they'd only belonged to that altered future-present that he and Jack had so disastrously thrown awry in their misguided attempt to fix his painful past.

A paradox, Jack said, and had gone on into a nonsensical explanation involving tomatoes and fruit salads.

Seto didn't like paradoxes.

Nevertheless, he was discovering that quantum physics was full of them – light that wasn't sure if it should act like a wave or a particle, cats that were both dead and alive, time that changed speeds in relation to motion, mass missing from the universe...

Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking and a host of other writers had replaced his usual bedtime reading of business journals and financial reports. Fascinating stuff, and he was rediscovering the joys of reading for pleasure, but he still had doubts that anyone at Torchwood other than Jack, who'd been with him throughout the shift between differing futures, would know him in this time line.

In that other, altered present he'd had mother, father, sister, wife, child – but no brother; not Mokuba. He'd been just another corporate dweeb working nose-to-the-grindstone as a high level technical programmer at the giant military-industrial complex known as KaibaCorp – had never been adopted, never ripped the family business from Gozaburo's cruel grip to remake it into the world's premier gaming company, never invented the groundbreaking, cutting-edge solid vision holographic duel disk technology which formed the cornerstone of his empire.

He'd apparently taken the place of the mutt as Yugi's best friend all through high school.

He'd lost Mokuba, who'd never been born.

Within days he'd dashed halfway around the world to barge his way through the hidden door of Torchwood and demand answers – as well as that Jack _Put - Things - Right!_

Instead Jack offered him a job – because nothing was so simple, or easily corrected as he'd thought. And, since it beat sitting around twiddling his thumbs while they waited for that damned timelord in his strange blue box of a T.A.R.D.I.S. to show up, he'd agreed.

He'd never expected to come to care about these people, certainly never expected to find a friend, especially one as – flamboyant – as Capt. Jack Harkness.

Nearly a month later Dr. Who finally popped out of nowhere and Jack had backed him into a corner and somehow forced him to indeed give them a chance to "fix it" – or at least make the attempt. They mostly had, though there was still the unsettling question of Noah....

But, leaving that for the moment, and ignoring that this whole present wasn't quite the same one he'd known before, which had left him scrambling more than he was willing to admit to get his feet under him in this new altered reality – there was still the fact that Ianto had a birthday coming up in the next couple of weeks.

In that other, screwed up time line, where Seto had never patented the gaming platform which brought Duel Monsters to life, the game had enjoyed a brief, passing fad, then died. But Ianto had loved it – so passionately that in his youth he had shoplifted booster packs he couldn't afford until the day he was caught, and so thoroughly that even now his family tracked down hoards of old cards for gifts. He had boxes of the decks he'd built over the years carefully stored in his rooms at home.

Seto already had checked, and knew that in this restored present Ianto had never officially entered any tournament on the face of the earth – KaibaCorp tracked those statistics. He also knew that the odds were excellent that Ianto had never strapped on a duel disk or tried out the platforms on the fixed dueling floors at any KaibaLand anywhere either, because, unknown to many, those collected information on both official and unofficial games as well, and relayed it back to KaibaCorp. Of course one could play anonymously up until a certain level, but after that it wasn't possible without logging in first. Yugi, after all, had come out of nowhere, and Seto never intended to be caught out by an unknown duelist again.

Besides, having met the man, Seto was betting Ianto had never had the guts to enter into official play, but had remained content to duel around kitchen tables and countertops – which was too bad. One afternoon, surprised to find someone who knew and loved the game as much as he did in this strangely altered present, seeing the hidden hurt in Ianto's eyes at Jack's lack of commitment, and thinking about his own talent for alienating anyone who had ever reached out to him, Seto had, against his better judgment, agreed to duel Ianto on his birthday. If he was ever going to learn to quit pushing people away, he had to start somewhere and on the spur of the moment Seto had decided Ianto was as good a place as any.

The next day he'd built a deck out of Ianto's spare cards, since his was back in Japan – if it even existed in this time line – and they'd dueled the old-fashioned way, with cards spread out on paper mats on the floor, since Jack and Ianto had previously broken the flat's table – and never mind how.

It was no wonder the game had died out without his technology to boost its popularity... But the conversation had been enlightening – and Ianto had played unexpectedly well; not perhaps well enough to ever go to Nationals, but certainly adequately to have at least placed at the regional level.

He needed a push.

And Seto had never been adverse to pushing...

Besides, surprisingly, he'd found himself liking Ianto, who'd reached out to him in this strange other present, and who in some weird way reminded him of Yugi Mutou, whom he'd originally despised and eventually grown to respect. Not that other Yugi – the pharaoh-spirit of the puzzle – but the real Yugi, who was shy and diffident and who had a core of hidden steel underneath; who'd also never been afraid to call him friend, who found him merely exasperating instead of intimidating, no matter how hard he, Seto, had tried to push Yugi away or deny what was happening. Yugi had always had the courage to talk to him when he was behaving his worst and had simply returned his deck during Duelist Kingdom without trashing it or stealing anything from it, as though Seto was just any other duelist and there was no animosity or previous history between them. Ianto had that same shy tentativeness overlaying the same quiet determination.

And Seto had never been adverse to messing with people's heads either – it was what made him so formidable an adversary both as a duelist and as a CEO. Ianto, who'd never dueled officially and had a birthday coming, was about to be messed with – whether he remembered Seto or not in this particular present. In that other present, after all, Ianto had reminded him that traditionally friends gave gifts to each other on their birthdays.

He could have simply called Jack – but that might have given everything away. So, while under normal circumstances investigating a member of Torchwood would be expected to raise all sorts of flags, one of the benefits of unlimited capital is it allows a person to hire the best of the best, even half a world away, to perform an oh-so-very-discrete check on said member's family – and, in particular, to find out, without raising a single alarm, if that family buys certain presents for said member's birthday on a regular basis.

And so, a couple weeks later, a very special, well packaged and oh-so-elegantly wrapped (as only the Japanese can) gift left KaibaCorp for the British Isles.

* * *

In Wales, in Cardiff, a special courier stood knocking at a run-down Victorian-era house which had been cut up into two smaller flats. He was holding a rectangular box wrapped in plain brown paper and labeled rather conspicuously in both English and Japanese

A woman answered the door, called, "Ianto, were you expecting something?" as she signed for the package, and took it in to her brother who hefted it with a look of astonishment.

"No. I haven't a clue what it is or who it could be from– " he answered, looking oddly at the foreign markings. He'd been having ghost memories for days of a tall, blue-eyed Japanese man who was here/not here and who fairly simmered with prickly arrogance and bristling attitude, belying the stereotype of deferential Asian politeness.

He'd finally broached the subject to Jack who'd tried to explain – only like all of Jack's explanations it explained nothing, especially about Jack, and left out everything pertinent, making nothing comprehensible, and leaving Ianto more confused than ever about the phantom man. _Someone who'd fallen through the rift and ended up in the wrong future_, Jack said; _he was back where he belonged now. He'd only been here until things were put right – you know how the rift is..._But that made no sense to Ianto; how could someone be here then, but not now, when then hadn't happened yet? _Because we had to fix it,_ Jack had responded, and then had silenced his questions with a kiss.

Later he'd talked to Gwen and found she had the same ghost memories, which may not have made it more understandable, but at least had reassured him that he wasn't going mad. It probably _was_ something to do with the rift, and time slippage – it wouldn't be the first time that time itself had become unstuck during rift activity.

"Well, open it! It's addressed to you." His sister Rhiannon's voice jerked Ianto back to the present, and the birthday party surrounding him.

He carefully detached the tape at each end, and then the piece down the middle, before removing the outer layer, waiting for his family to twit him, as usual, about the caution he took not to rip the paper. Underneath, wrapped in elegant folds of heavy blue-and-white dragon-patterned tissue, was a package. Ianto gently unfolded this paper also and it was such lovely stuff that, for once, nobody teased him.

Beneath were still more folds, this time of royal blue silk cunningly wrapped around a silvery box so as to leave the embossed KaibaCorp logo visible, with a matching silver card reading "Happy Birthday, Ianto!" in cheerful engraved blue script tucked into the folds. He pulled the card loose and the silk fell away in a fluttery drift to pool at this feet. No other markings labeled the gift; just the brazen, unmistakable, impossible to ignore, overlapping KC trademark initials dead center on the lid.

"Well, go on...," his sister urged again and by now his entire family was ringed around him, watching curiously.

One of the kids piped up, "Who's it from?"

"I don't know...," he repeated, but the ghost memory was smirking, whispering an impossible name.

With his family waiting expectantly, Ianto took a deep breath and lifted the lid. Styrofoam protected the tissue wrapped – _something_. He pulled the top off and folded back the covering to reveal another card, and below that...

...a duel disk.

There was no mistaking it, nothing else it could possibly be, but it was unlike any he'd ever seen before; slimmer, lighter, more streamlined, with swept back lines and a grace entirely lacking in the current models; it was a symphony in gleaming chrome and blue. It looked – God, it looked more modern and advanced than some of the things that fell through the rift, impossible as that was.

Ianto closed his eyes in wonder. Part of him ached to try it on, while most of him wanted nothing more than to cast it from him and run shrieking down the street. He could hear a phantom laugh at his expense...

"So, are you going to read the card, or do we have to?" his brother-in-law Johnny teased.

"Uh...right." His eyes flew open and he carefully set the duel disk down, licked his lips, took another deep, steadying breath, and lifted the envelope's flap, slipped out the contents, and read:

**You don't know me (...or perhaps you do? Jack was unclear on this...) but I know you – and I know you duel.**

No one but his family knew that, Ianto thought. Well, they and Jack...

_Wrong...,_ the ghost memory whispered.

**And I know it's your birthday.**

_How on earth can he know that? _Ianto wondered uneasily.

**This is the prototype of our latest model – it's due for release by year's end but – don't worry – this particular duel disk is already fully functional; I saw to that myself. Any data entered into it will be recognized and logged as valid by the official International Dueling Network. I expect to see some data registered to you through it; think of it as a field test you're running for me.**

**Also, since I'm missing your birthday, next time I'm in Cardiff, remember, you owe me a duel.**

— **S. K.**

**P.S. – I hope Jack gives you something half as nice for your birthday. He'd better, or he can answer to me.**

– **Tell Gwen I owe her an apology. Next time I'm in Cardiff...**

– **Tell Jack if he's good I'll send him one as well. ****You**** get to decide if he's been "good" though.**

Ianto closed his eyes again. _Just breathe. Just. Breathe._

"So – it's a duel disk, right? So, who _is_ it from?" the oldest of the kids badgered him. Now the whole lot of them, even Mam, were waiting on his answer.

"Just – someone – I used to work with...," Ianto sighed, as the ghost smirked, eyebrows quirked in dare, with a hint of challenge in his blue eyes.


End file.
